Business today - September 29, 2000

REDMOND, Wash. Paul Allen is leaving Microsoft's board of directors but will remain an adviser to Bill Gates, the prep school buddy with whom he co-founded the company.

Allen, the world's third-richest man with an estimated net worth of $36 billion, will spend about the same amount of time working with Microsoft but will focus less on business and more on new technologies and products, the company said Thursday.

Also departing the board is director Richard Hackborn, who has been on the board since 1994. The company said in a statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the two will not be replaced, reducing the size of the board from eight to six members.

Allen and Gates founded Microsoft in 1975.

Mortgage rates show decrease

WASHINGTON Mortgage rates edged down this week with rates on 30-year mortgages below the 8 percent mark for the seventh week in a row.

The average interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages slipped to 7.88 percent for the week ending Sept. 29, down from 7.90 percent reached the previous week, according to a survey released Thursday by Freddie Mac, the mortgage company. A year ago, the rate on 30-year mortgages stood at 7.70 percent.

In mid-May, rates on 30-year mortgages hit a five-year high of 8.64 percent.

Fifteen-year mortgages, a popular option for refinancing, dipped to an average 7.53 percent this week from 7.57 percent last week.

A year ago, 15-year mortgages averaged 7.35 percent

On one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 7.21 percent, down from last week's rate of 7.27 percent. For the same period last year, one-year ARMS averaged 6.12 percent.

The rates do not include add-on fees known as points, which averaged 1 percent of the loan amount for all three types of mortgages.